Monday 13 August 2012

And now for a little culture

I am asked so often how I ended up being a singer and there are many reasons and answers to this, but in the end there is one reason that overrides all others and that is the sheer beauty of some music and the feeling you get when you perform it.



This is the beautiful Renee Flemming singing the 3rd song in the cycle  of 4 last songs by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). The words are beautiful by themselves and when the music is added for me it is sublime.

BEIM SCHLAFENGEHEN


Nun der Tag mich müd gemacht,
soll mein sehnliches Verlangen
freundlich die gestirnte Nacht
wie ein müdes Kind empfangen. 

Hände, laßt von allem Tun,
Stirn, vergiß du alles Denken,
alle meine Sinne nun
wollen sich in Schlummer senken. 

Und die Seele unbewacht
will in freien Flügen schweben,
um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
tief und tausendfach zu leben.



WHILE GOING TO SLEEP


Now that the day has made me so tired,
my dearest longings shall
be accepted kindly by the starry night
like a weary child.
 
Hands, cease your activity,
head, forget all of your thoughts;
all my senses now
will sink into slumber.
 
And my soul, unobserved,
will float about on untrammeled wings
in the enchanted circle of the night,
living a thousandfold more deeply.




This pretty much sums up how I feel today so there is nothing to add.

6 comments:

  1. Diana Damrau singing as the queen of the night at Thed New York Met is something I will never forget

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    1. Oh I do love Diana Damrau and no one sings the Queen of the Night better.

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  2. The lady has a beautiful voice, but I was wondering how you knew that you had a good voice? Did you start singing at school? Did you have private lessons? At what age did you know you were going to be a singer? Just wondered, I'm interested in how people choose the right career.

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    1. To be absolutely honest Ilona I didn't know I had a decent voice until after I decided that I wanted to sing. Rather the chicken and the egg thing. I didn't sing a single note until I was 17 and just worked very hard to make the rather average voice I had back then as good as I could. Then went to music college to train it for 6 years. I would possibly sound pretentious if I said that the career chose me, but to be honest, that is a little bit the way it was. It was something I had to do back then.

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    2. Thank you for explaining. That's a long time training, it must have been a lot of hard work which is now paying off for you.

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  3. Wow, just wow. Is it wrong to get teary eyed during a performance like that? Beautiful.

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